03. Gods at the Well of Souls Read Online Free PDF

didn't fight it at all. When I  finally admitted this to Anne Marie back in Liliblod, I found that she felt the  same. Since then I haven't even dreamed of the past, although I have had a few  nightmares involving being on a ship at night. Yes, perhaps I can understand, to  a degree at least." 
     
    You have changed more dramatically than that, starting from when we set out, but  it has become a real change since we have been here." 
     
    "Huh? In what ways?" 
     
    "No matter how identical you looked, it was always easy to tell you apart. Anne  Marie was more of a motherly type, and she had many affectations that came out  in how she spoke and even moved. You moved very differently, with a bolder,  prouder manner, a tough, more masculine way of speaking, that sort of thing. If  you bumped yourself, you would curse; Anne Marie would say, 'Oh dear!' or  something equally quaint. As we went along, I began to notice that the two of  you were growing more and more alike. You lost a degree of that masculinity,  began to move in more feminine ways, while Anne Marie seemed to pick up that  part you lost, becoming tougher and more confident. You have added more feminine  words, and she has dropped some of her more obvious old-fashioned quaintness.  You now pay attention to jewelry, cosmetics, hair, that sort of thing, even  though you are hardly doing it for her or for some man. You are doing it for  yourself, and it is exactly why she does it. And then there are the half  conversations." 
     
    Tony was fascinated by this. "The what?" 
     
    "I am sure that neither of you is aware of it, but when you talk to each other,  what must seem like whole complicated dialogues are really often sets of  unconnected half sentences, words, and such, and often you will finish one  another's sentences." 
     
    "I-I never realized-" 
     
    "I did not think you did. Physically you are absolutely identical, I think more  so than any natural identical twins could be. Together, over time, while I have  sorted myself out, you two have been doing the same, only less dramatically,  more slowly and subtly. You are not really Tony anymore, nor is she Anne Marie.  You are someone different, an average of the two. Only the difference in your  knowledge bases keeps you from being almost one individual in two bodies. That  alone will keep you slightly different, which is, I suspect, all to the good.  Everyone should have a little something to make them different. But that is the  extent of it." 
     
    Tony thought about it, not sure if she was pleased with the idea but seeing the  ultimate point, which was the same one Alowi had made about herself: they were  who and what they were. One either accepted that and learned to live with it or  one killed oneself. Period. 
     
    The Well World worked some of the magic; the rest had to be supplied from  inside, from the mind and soul. 
     
    "Make your appointment," Tony told the Erdomese. "But make no rash or  irreversible decisions." 
     
      
     
    Doctor Drinh was an Agonese, and after all this time in the province, learning  the language and the culture, Alowi still couldn't tell one from another without  a uniform or badge of rank. He specialized in treating aliens but was a  diagnostician and planner. Others, some so alien that they made Erdomese and  Agonese look like relatives, did the actual work. 
     
    Drinh put the Erdomese profile on the computer, then took samples of blood from  Alowi for comparison, then ran them through a myriad of automated tests and  looked over the results. 
     
    "Well, I can say that your feelings will not get much worse than they are, but  they won't get any better, either. It must make for early marriages and active  honeymoons, at least." He paused. "Sorry if the attempt at humor was offensive." "No, no," she assured him. "It is absolutely correct. Child marriage is the norm  in Erdom." 
     
    "Yes, but you see, in this sort of